Don't visit patients, use Skype: Health trust: It is offering people the opportunity to use Skype to speak to th...

Families at a National Health Service (NHS) trust in Berkshire, England, have been urged to visit patients via the Internet. It is offering people the opportunity to use Skype to speak to their loved ones rather than travelling to the hospital every day. The scheme, being proposed by the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, is intended to save money among relatives who receive travel expenses. Under the plans some relatives would qualify for travel expenses when they visit their relatives after mental health patients in Berkshire are relocated from Ascot, Maidenhead and Slough to Reading. But NHS bosses, who are trying to save £4 million (S$7.9 million) a year, believe offering families alternative methods of communication, could help. The proposals have not been warmly received by patients' groups and mental health charities. Ms Eleanor Cryer said: "IT is taking ove...